Wapishana (Wapixana) is an Arawakan language of Guyana and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is spoken by over 6,000 people on both sides of the Guyana-

border. In Brazil the highest concentration of Wapishana speakers are in the municipalities of

Cantá Cantá () is a municipality located in the mideast of the state of Roraima in Brazil. Its population is 18,799 (2020) and its area is 7,665 km². The municipality of Cantá was established in 1995. It is an agricultural community based on dai ...

and Bonfim, the Serra da Lua region, where it has been recognized as an official language since 2014. External pressures have diminished the use of Wapishana among younger generations, and it wasn't until 1987 that Wapishana was used as the teaching language in Indigenous schools of the language community. In 2009, Roraima Federal University created an extension program for learning Wapishana. In Guyana, there are organizations for language preservation, such as Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati'o

Cultural importance

Many plants and animals endemic to the region are only known in Wapishana, and the language has a distinct system of taxonomy. An example is the three classes of plants, ''karam’makau'', ''wapaurib bau'' and ''wapananinau,'' which are indicative of the "cultivation criteria" of the indigenous people. ''Karam’makau'' represents plants collected in the wild, whereas ''wapaurib bau'' is the plants that have been domesticated and often bear names based on the location or farmer of origin.

Cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

, a foodstuff of major importance to indigenous people of the region, has a "bewildering variety of names" in Wapishana. ''Wapananinau'' are plants with magical properties, and have important functions for shamans of the traditional beliefs.

Relation to other indigenous languages

Kaufman (1994) considered Wapishana,

Atorada Atorada or Atoraí is a Endangered language, moribund Arawakan language of Brazil and Guyana. Henri Ramirez (2019) considers it to be a dialect of Wapishana language, Wapishana. References

Arawakan languages Languages of Brazil Lang ...

, and

Mapidian Mawayana (Mahuayana), also known as Mapidian (Maopidyán), is a moribund Arawakan language of northern South America. It used to be spoken by people living in ethnic Wai-wai and Tiriyó villages in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname. As of 2015, the ...

to be dialects. separates Mawayana/Mapidian/Mawakwa (considered as a single language) from Wapishana, and she includes them in a Rio Branco branch. Ethnologue notes that Atorada has 50% lexical similarity with Wapishana and 20% with Mapidian, and that Wapishana and Mapidian share 10%. Ramirez (2020) considers Atorai to be a dialect of Wapishana. Wapishana and Pemon, a Cariban language, have borrowed heavily from each other due to intensive mutual contact.

Phonology

Consonants

* Consonants /b ɖ ʐ/ in final position are heard as voiceless ʈ ʂ

Vowels

Morphology

: :

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Wapishana dictionary
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series {{Arawakan languages Arawakan languages Languages of Brazil Languages of Guyana